Five Iraqis, including two children, were killed by a mortar blast in the southern port city of Basra, a medic said.

The five were killed when a mortar shell hit their home in Al-Iskan in the northern outskirts of Basra, Mustafa Sahab, a doctor at the city's Port Hospital told The AFP.

He said a four-year-old and a seven-year-old were killed in the explosion, as well as a 60-year-old woman and two 20-year-old women.

Elsewhere, gunmen killed a police captain and a university student who were headed by car to Baghdad from Baqouba on Sunday, a hospital official said.

Capt. Haidar Hadi, who was based in the capital, was giving the student a lift when the gunmen opened fire. The attack took place in the Hadida area of Baqouba, north of Baghdad.

Meanwhile, a lawyer for a soldier charged in the Iraqi abuse case said a captain at the Iraqi prison had claimed that Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez was present during some unspecified "interrogations and/or allegations of the prisoner abuse," The Washington Post reported Sunday.

Citing a recording of a military hearing obtained by the US daily, The Post said the military lawyer, Capt. Robert Shuck, was told that Sanchez, the top US military officer in Iraq, and other senior officers were aware of what was going on in Abu Ghraib prison.

On Saturday, the newspaper published testimony of soldiers speaking of fun and sadistic pleasure in abusing prisoners. (Albawaba.com)